1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit for controlling a fluorescent lamp, and more particularly, to an integrated circuit that includes ballast control circuitry, power factor correction circuitry and a half bridge driver in a single monolithic chip.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Electronic ballasts for controlling fluorescent or high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps usually require electronics necessary for preheating the lamp filaments, striking the lamp, driving the lamp to a given power, detecting lamp fault conditions, and safely deactivating the circuit.
Electronic ballasts for gas discharge circuits have come into widespread use because of the availability of power MOSFET switching devices and insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) that can replace previously used pwer bipolar switching devices. A number of integrated circuits (ICs) have been devised for driving gates of power MOSFETs or IGBTs in electronic ballasts. Examples include the IR2155, IR2157, and IR21571 products sold by International Rectifier Corporation and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,545,955 and 6,211,623, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
The IR2155 gate driver IC offers significant advantages over prior circuits: The driver is packaged in a conventional DIP or SOIC package. The package contains internal level shifting circuitry, under voltage lockout circuitry, deadtime delay circuitry, and additional logic circuitry and inputs so that the driver can self-oscillate at a frequency determined by external resistors and capacitors.
The IR2157 and IR21571 products provide fully integrated ballast control ICs with several features not available in the IR2155. The IR2157 and IR21571 products function in five basic modes of operation and can make transitions between modes based on IC inputs. The modes include undervoltage lockout (UVLO) mode, preheat mode, ignition ramp, run mode, and fault mode. Other features of these ICs include: (i) a start-up procedure that insures a flash-free start without an initial high voltage pulse across the lamp; (ii) non-zero voltage switching protection circuitry; (iii) over-temperature shutdown circuitry; (iv) DC bus and AC on/off control circuitry; and (v) near or below resonance detection circuitry.
Previously available ballast ICs require external components for power factor correction (PFC) control. An example of a PFC control circuit is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,614, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In addition, previously available ballast ICs are subject to several operation problems:
One ballast operation problem, the xe2x80x9cinitial flash problem,xe2x80x9d can arise when driver circuitry for a half bridge circuit first begins to switch. If the half bridge is powering a load such as a lamp, inductive (L) and capacitive (C) components in the load circuit initially contain no stored energy. For a few initial switching cycles, a very high voltage appears across the C components and also across the lamp. This initial high voltage can be substantially higher than steady state voltage during preheating and can cause the lamp to momentarily ignite or strike, producing an initial flash of the lamp. Because the cathodes of the lamp have not been properly heated at this time, they may be weakened, undesirably shortening the lamp""s life.
Another ballast operation problem, the xe2x80x9cDC bus droop problem,xe2x80x9d can arise when the lamp ignites or xe2x80x9cstrikes.xe2x80x9d Prior to lamp ignition, current through the load circuit is relatively low compared to load currents when the lamp ignites and runs. Meanwhile, a PFC control circuit conventionally drives a boost switch transistor and inductor to maintain DC bus voltage during this light load, pre-ignition period. When the ballast control circuit begins ignition ramping, the frequency of half bridge switch devices decreases or ramps downward to an ignition frequency. During this downward ramp, current through the L and C components of the load circuit increases as the resonant frequency is approached. The voltage developed across the C component also increases, and when the magnitude of this voltage reaches the ignition voltage of the lamp, the lamp ignites. At lamp ignition, the load current seen by the DC bus increases very abruptly, causing a momentary droop in DC bus voltage. If large enough, this droop could undesirably cause lamp ignition to fail, the lamp to extinguish, and the ballast to sense a fault and shut down.
In the DC bus droop problem, DC bus load can cause a change in DC bus voltage because the PFC control circuit has a finite loop response time. A step change in load current causes a momentary change in the DC bus voltage until the control loop can catch up. Several techniques can be used to reduce this change in DC bus voltage, such as increasing the value of the DC bus storage capacitor and/or increasing control loop speed. Neither of these solutions is ideal in practice, however, because increasing the value of the capacitor also increases its cost and physical size, while increasing control loop speed can lead to instability.
Another ballast operation problem, the xe2x80x9cfalse shutdown problem,xe2x80x9d can arise during ignition ramping when the lamp ignites. In some cases, current in the lamp circuit, which includes L and C components and the lamp, can momentarily go to zero. If this occurs, no energy is stored and therefore the half-bridge switch devices, such as FETs, will hardswitch, possibly over several cycles. The ballast control circuit may detect this hardswitching as an over-current condition and may therefore shut down. This is undesirable because such false shutdowns make it uncertain whether the lamp will reliably strike.
Previous designs used filter/delay components external to the ballast control IC to alleviate the false shutdown problem. Such components may, however, prevent proper sensing of real faults.
Another ballast operation problem, the xe2x80x9cend-of-life detection problem,xe2x80x9d arises when a lamp approaches the end of its life. The IR2157 and 21571 products described above each have a shutdown (SD) pin, used to shutdown the oscillator, pull gate driver outputs low, and put the IC in an interim micropower state. Input voltage on the SD pin above a threshold indicates lamp fault, lamp exchange, or lamp removal. It would be advantageous to provide circuitry for easier detection of the end of life of a lamp.
Another ballast operation problem, the xe2x80x9cdelayed restart problem,xe2x80x9d arises when a lamp is turned off such as by a momentary power outage or brown-out. Restarting of the lamp is conventionally delayed for an undesirably long time while preheating is performed.
The present invention provides a circuitry for controlling a load circuit including a fluorescent lamp which reduces the number of external components required and alleviates the ballast operation problems described above.
The circuitry of the present invention reduces the number of external components by providing an IC that includes both ballast control circuitry, power factor correction (PFC) circuitry, and a half bridge driver in a single monolithic chip. The ballast control and driver circuitry provides drive signals to a power supply circuit, which delivers power to a load circuit including a fluorescent lamp. The ballast control and driver circuitry also receives sense signals indicating operating conditions of the power supply circuit and/or the load circuit, and responds to the sense signals by modifying the drive signals. The PFC circuitry regulates the voltage at which power is provided to the load circuit by the power supply circuit. Therefore, PFC circuitry and the ballast control and drive circuitry together can control the power supply circuit and the load circuit.
By including PFC circuitry with the ballast control and driver circuitry, the invention eliminates the need for external PFC circuitry. This is advantageous because a full function ballast control IC can be implemented, capable of performing all functions necessary to drive virtually all types of rapid start fluorescent lamps while at the same time performing DC bus voltage regulation. The IC can have appropriate pins, such as pins for providing low and high side drive signals to a half bridge, a regulation pin for providing a signal to regulate voltage at which power is provided to the load circuit, and so forth.
Additional internal circuitry allows a further reduction in pins and external components of a lamp ballast IC, including internal circuitry for coordinating power with drive signals (to address the initial flash problem described above) and internal circuitry for performing power regulation at different control loop speeds (to address the DC bus droop problem described above).
To alleviate the initial flash problem, the present invention includes circuitry which provides power so that the lamp begins preheating at a voltage at which the lamp cannot ignite. The circuitry begins to operate the lamp by providing preheat drive signals for preheating the lamp. At the beginning of the preheat drive signals, the circuit begins providing power at a non-operating voltage at which the lamp cannot ignite and increases to an operating voltage. The operating voltage is maintained while the lamp is running.
The circuitry for eliminating the initial flash problem includes enable circuitry which receives a coordination signal indicating whether the driver circuitry is providing off or on drive signals and, in response, disables the PFC circuitry while off drive signals are provided and enables the PFC circuitry no sooner than the beginning of on drive signals. When the PFC circuitry is enabled, power is initially provided at an unboosted voltage at which the lamp cannot ignite. The PFC circuitry can, as preheating continues, increase to a boosted voltage, which can be the nominal running voltage.
The invention also includes circuitry which operates the PFC circuitry and enables regulation of the DC bus voltage in accordance with information about a mode in which ballast control and driver circuitry operates. The ballast control and driver circuitry has two or more modes and makes transitions between the modes in response to sense signals. The enable circuitry receives a mode signal providing information about the mode in which the ballast control and driver circuitry is operating and responds by enabling or disabling the PFC circuitry.
For example, the mode signal can indicate whether the ballast control and driver circuitry is in one of its operating modesxe2x80x94preheat, ignition ramp, or runxe2x80x94as opposed to one of its non-operating modesxe2x80x94fault or under voltage lockout. When the ballast control and driver circuitry is in an operating mode, the enable circuitry can enable the PFC circuitry, but in a non-operating mode, the enable circuitry can disable the PFC circuitry. Accordingly, this circuitry advantageously activates operation of the PFC control circuitry only during normal ballast operation.
The present invention also regulates the voltage at which power is provided at a lower loop speed when the lamp is running than when the lamp is ramping to ignition, thus eliminating the DC bus droop problem. This technique is implemented by loop control circuitry which regulates the voltage on the DC bus at a high control loop speed during ignition ramp, and at a lower control loop speed during run operation of the lamp. As a result, the control loop can respond more quickly to abrupt changes in DC bus load that occur during the ignition ramp mode; in a ballast, such changes occur during ignition, and the quicker response can therefore help minimize DC bus voltage droop at ignition. During run mode, on the other hand, DC bus voltage regulation can be held stable as the control loop response time can be decreased to its run mode value.
The loop speed set by the regulation circuitry can also depend on the mode in which ballast control and driver circuitry is operating. As a result, the loop speed can be dynamically changed to reduce or minimize DC bus voltage droop.
The loop speed regulation circuitry of the present invention is advantageous in comparison with generally used discrete PFC controller ICs such as the MC34262 from Motorola Corporation or the LX1562 from Linfinity Electronics. Dynamic DC bus voltage control loop response switching is not an option with those ICs. In addition, this implementation can be incorporated in a single IC, reducing the external components and supply current that would be required with discrete implementations.
The false shutdown circuitry of the present invention eliminates false over-current faults, thereby alleviating the false shutdown problem discussed above. The fault detection circuitry of the present invention generates a detect signal indicating that current through the lamp exceeds a threshold. Filter circuitry in the present invention receives the detect signals and, if the detect signals meet a filter criterion, causes the drive circuitry to cease providing drive signals. The filter circuitry preferably includes a counter for counting the number of detect signals. The filter circuitry causes the drive signals to cease only when the number of detect signals reaches a fault number. If the ballast control and driver circuitry has an ignition ramp mode, for example, the counter can be enabled during the ignition ramp mode; in this case, the fault number can be larger than the number of times current through the lamp would normally exceed the threshold during the ignition ramp mode. The counter can be disabled during the run mode so that the filter circuitry causes drive signals to cease each time a detect signal occurs.
The fault counter of the present invention acts as a digital filter, and can be internally programmed to provide a fault signal only when the number of over-current detections during ignition ramp mode is likely to indicate a real over-current fault, thus eliminating or greatly reducing false over-current faults. As a result, external filtering is unnecessary. Further, the fault counter can be bypassed during run mode because the lamp is operating in its stable, steady state and no over-current detections will occur unless there is a real fault such as lamp breakage, short circuit, etc., which should be acted on immediately.
The end-of-life detection problem described above is addressed in the present invention by end-of-life detection circuitry which receives voltage sense signals and, if the indicated voltage across the lamp indicates that the lamp is nearing the end of its life, causes the drive circuitry to cease providing the drive signals. The end-of-life detection circuitry compares voltages indicated by the voltage sense signals with upper and lower window voltages, and causes the drive circuitry to cease if the indicated voltage exceeds the upper window voltage or is less than the lower window voltage. The ballast control and driver circuitry preferably includes threshold circuitry that receives the voltage sense signals and, when the indicated voltage exceeds a threshold voltage, causes the drive circuitry to cease. The threshold voltage can be greater than the upper window voltage.
The end-of-life circuitry and the threshold circuitry preferably operate in accordance with the mode of operation of the ballast control and driver circuitry. Thus, the invention can include shutdown circuitry that receives the end-of-life signals and the over-threshold signals and causes the drive circuitry to cease in response to the end-of-life signal only during the run mode but causes the drive circuitry to cease in response to the over-threshold signal during any mode.
The delayed restart problem described above is addressed by circuitry which preheats a lamp for a shorter time during re-start than when initially starting the lamp. In other words, the duration of a preheat mode is shortened because the lamp cathodes retain some heat so that full preheat duration is unnecessary. This technique advantageously reduces the lamp off time in cases such as a momentary power outage or brown-out. Reducing lamp off time can be important in certain situations.
The circuitry for addressing the delayed restart problem measures the interval from when the drive signals in the starting sequence cease until restart time. If the measured interval is less than a time after which full preheating is needed, such as one second, the restart sequence is provided, with shorter duration preheating.
In accordance with the present invention, all of the above circuitry is implemented together in a single IC. The result is a greatly improved, full function ballast control IC. Advantageously, the IC includes dynamic control loop response switching, minimal pins for external connection, requires minimal external components, has low supply current needs, and generally provides a vast improvement over implementations requiring discrete PFC control circuitry.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention which refers to the accompanying drawings.